*sigh*

Yesterday a woman in hijab and her husband got on the subway and sat down across from me. I looked at her, because I tend to look at women in hijab -- I think they are a pretty (as a side note: I've recently realized that I'm very very aesthetically drawn to a lot of sartorial choices/situations that involve being very convered -- this goes for everything from hijab to kimono to historical fashions to much Indian clothing). She looked nervous and sad, and he looked annoyed, and it being 9/11, I thought they probably thought I was feeling some hostility or nervousness, so I looked away.

As the subway ride went on, it was clear the drama in all this lay elsewhere. He didn't like how she was sitting and slapped her leg. She scratched her face and he slapped her hand away. Then she took an ipod out of her bag for him. he put on the headphones but the player went back into her bag and she sat there, curled in on herself, facing away from him as best she could, looking like she was about to cry. He yanked at her arm hard and scolded her in another language. Little things, obvious things, on and on, so I did stare, because what else can you do other than make it clear that you see? He started to stare back at me while he continued to do these things at her. I wouldn't look away and he wasn't happy.

Then I had to get off the train; I was sad.

meanwhile

It looks like my Regency men's oufit will arrive _on_ my birthday.

Which still doesn't resolve my birthday issues at all, but is pretty cool.

so geeky I had to use a smaller font

So I wore my Snape coat to work today, open, with my hair up, and as such it looks no more eccentric than the rest of my clothes, which is lovely as it's _perfect_ for this weather.

Without the layers and layers of other clothes under it, and without being buttoned however it's a bit big, and I spent this morning on this bus feeling giggly and dorky, as if I'd been rumaging in someone's closet I shouldn't have been.